1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a connection management apparatus for network devices, and more particularly to a connection management apparatus that can integrally accommodate configuration in which connection paths of network devices differ for individual users.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a typical structure of a conventional connection management apparatus for network devices. As shown in FIG. 1, one or more users are connected to a router 10 via an IP (Internet Protocol) network. The router 10 is connected to a layer-2 switch 11. The layer-2 switch 11, in turn, is connected to a server 15 and various network devices such as a firewall (FW) 12, a SLB (Server Load Balancing) device 13 and a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) device 14.
Conventional connection management apparatuses for network devices allow for different connection paths of the network devices for individual users. However, when the connection path of a user is changed, it is necessary to physically rearrange network cables corresponding to the change.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-111712 discloses a communication apparatus that can implement a transferring process between VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks), a multi-protocol transferring process, especially, a connection process between separate networks and an editing process on packet headers in a hardware fashion.
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of services to build networks corresponding to individual users, for example, Internet Data. Center (iDC) as appreciated by those skilled in the art, and rent not only installation areas and power supplies of network devices but also the network devices themselves. When a user starts to utilize such an iDC service, the iDC needs to physically connect or arrange rented network devices in accordance with connection paths that the user desires.
In this case, under circumstances where users quite frequently go in and come from an iDC service, it is necessary to physically rearrange connection paths in response to frequent incoming and outgoing behavior, thereby increasing operational costs such as a labor cost and the number of operational steps. In addition, in a case where similar type network devices are used but connection paths are different for individual users, whenever a user having a connection path different from already registered users is joined, it is necessary to newly add another physically different network structure, thereby resulting in additional problems such as increases in installation areas.
In order to prevent physical changes of connection paths, there is an approach o logically set connection paths. In this approach, however, in order to change a connection path of a user, it is necessary to change current configurations of network devices that are located in the connection path. For example, if connections among the, network devices shown in FIG. 1 are set in accordance with VLAN, it is necessary to change IP addresses of devices that are set to be connected next to the router 10, the layer-2 switch 11, the firewall 12, the SLB device 13 and the SSL device 14. Thus, this configuration change is troublesome task.